ORDER CARINAT^. 



1235 



size of the existing forms. Here also may be placed the now 

 extinct family Dididce^ represented by the Dodo {Didus ineptus) of 

 Mauritius, and the Solitaire (Pezophaps solitarid) of Rodriguez. 



Of these two singular birds, the Dodo formerly inhabited Mauritius 

 in great numbers, but the last record of its occurrence dates from the 

 year 1681. It was a large and heavy bird (fig. n 19), bigger than a swan, 

 and entirely unlike the pigeons in general appearance. The wings were 

 rudimentary and completely useless as organs of flight. The legs were 

 short and stout, the feet had four toes each, and the tail was extremely 



Fig. 1119. — Skeleton of the Dodo {Didus inej>tus), restored. (After Owen. 



short, carrying, like the wings, a tuft of soft plumes. The beak (un- 

 like that of any of the Columbce except the little Didunculns strigiros- 

 tris) was arched towards the end, and the upper jaw had a strongly- 

 hooked apex, not unlike that of a bird of prey. The frontal region of 

 the skull was greatly elevated and tumid, from the excessive development 

 of cellular cavities between the two tables of the skull, and the actual 

 brain-case was very small in proportion to the size of the cranium. In 

 many respects allied to the Dodo, and, like it, incapable of flight, was 

 the Solitaire, of which the last recorded appearance was in the year 

 1693. The Solitaire had longer legs and neck than the Dodo, the bill 

 was less strongly arched, its forehead flatter, and there was developed 



